|
GRACE LEAFLETS No. 2
What do we mean by Grace?
It is sometimes difficult for man to understand grace. We have been taught to live by rules and regulations from childhood, and it is always a surprise to find God has a different and unconditional way. It does not always appeal to our pride to know that grace is always unconditional and undeserved; it is the exact opposite of doing anything to win God’s approval.
We are Saved by Grace.
We can depend on nothing for salvation apart from God’s willingness to save us (2 Tim.1: 9). If we could have saved ourselves then the death of Jesus would have been totally unnecessary, but we were could not, the Bible teaches we are saved by grace (Eph.2: 8). Grace in order to be effective needs to be based on God alone. He chose us (Rom.8: 30; 1 Peter 1: 19, 20), and has drawn us to Himself with irresistible grace. Such a thing is quite unrelated to reason or expectations, but Jesus “the Friend of sinners” came to call sinners and save them (Matt.9:13; Luke 19:10; 1 Tim.1:15; Eph. 2: 4). He did this by His own death as a substitute for those sinners. This same grace keeps us and will never let go -not even sin disqualifies us (Jn.10: 28; Rom.8: 17, 38, 39; 2 Tim.1: 12). By grace we are accepted, forgiven and made children of God.
Grace Changes Us.
Grace does not require us to do anything in order to qualify for salvation, but when we receive God’s grace God begins to change us. We know that as Christians we want to live righteous lives, and we sometimes feel a serious problem of guilt. This often makes us try harder and leads to even more frustration with ourselves. The simple Bible truth is that we do not have to live by rules and regulations in order to please God. We are being changed to be like Jesus – we sometimes call that “sanctification”, but that too is done by God’s work in us, not by our keeping a law (Galatians 3: 3-5,21,22). God writes His law in our hearts (Jeremiah 31:31) – He makes it possible for us to live His way.
Sometimes people have tried to distinguish between different parts of the Old Testament law, and say that the moral law (e.g. the Ten Commandments) is still valid as a way of salvation, but that the ceremonial law was done away in Jesus. But the New Testament makes it clear that the whole law was abolished in the death of Jesus, and that it is in any case ineffective to save or change. Paul must have preached this very clearly because some of his critics asked, “Do you mean we can continue to sin so that grace may abound?” (Romans 6:1). While the answer was “Of course not!” Paul was convinced that we do not please God or get made righteous by keeping the law. It is dead and powerless.
According to Titus 2: 11-14 grace teaches us to say no to temptation, produces self-controlled, upright lives, frees us from wickedness and makes us eager to do good. Quite a transformation! This is not by self-effort, but because we are in Christ and we have died with Him and received a new life – as baptism demonstrates (Rom. 6: 1-11). It is not in our nature to be righteous, any more than it is the nature of an elephant to swim or of iron to fly. Grace changes us from “glory to glory” (2 Cor.3: 18).
The real truth is that the whole Christian life is about grace received through faith. We trust Jesus and receive His grace that keeps us walking right. Paul says to the Galatians “You live by the Spirit; walk in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5: 25). We have been set free from law in the death of Jesus; let us never return to it; “for freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5: 1).
Grace Motivates Us.
We see in Eph.2: 10 that grace is for good works. Grace is both the power and the motive for such a change. The grace of God is the only adequate motive for serving Him. Imagine the difference between serving because “we ought” and serving because the grace of God is at work in us. We maybe bring a gift to our husbands or wives; that gift would be valueless if it were simply a response to what is expected; but if it is a demonstration of love so that we are as pleased to give as the other is to receive, then that is what grace is about. “Ought” is about legalism and duty. Service rendered out of duty is worthless. That is the whole point of 1 Corinthians 3: 12 – 15. Paul is emphatic; he is building by the grace of God – and only what God does in and through us lasts; the rest is like wood, hay and stubble. In Ephesians 1: 10 the word often translated as “workmanship” is the word from which we get “poem”. God is love and we are called to express Him to the world, as a poem expresses the heart of the poet.
We love because God’s love is given to us. People will come to us from a world that is very short of grace because they see we have a resource of grace in Jesus. In the world they see they are judged at work and in society by their performance; we bring them into a relationship of unconditional acceptance and a community which reflects that acceptance. The good news that in the cross of Jesus God is reconciled to man, and in grace God will accept us regardless of who or what we are.
DerekReynolds © Grace Church2002
|
